Ag Notebook: Iconic Colorado Springs farm running dry

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Water running dry for iconic Colorado Springs farm ... The recent drought has left a Colorado Springs icon on the verge of a shutdown.

Venetucci Farm learned in a Feb. 20 letter from the Colorado Water Protective and Development Association that it will not receive any augmentation water for the 2013 pumping season.

The news left farm leaders wondering how they would keep the livestock fed and continue to cultivate crops, including bright orange pumpkins that have been given out to about 5 million kids over the last 70-plus years.

The entire operation is in jeopardy, said Mike Hannigan, CEO of Pikes Peak Community Foundation, which runs the farm.

Hannigan said prior to receiving the letter from the CWPDA, the farm focus was on raising money to build a barn at the property on U.S. Highway 85 near Widefield.

While the foundation still needs about $250,000 to move forward with the barn project, the need for an immediate solution for the water problem has leaped to the forefront.

Large bucks are rubbing their antlers against fruit trees, stripping the bark and killing the stock. It’s a natural act called a “buck rub,” or “deer rub.”

It’s a particular concern for farmers in Leelanau County, where cherry trees are an important part of the local economy.

Some believe Leelanau County’s designation as a Quality Deer Management site is playing a part in the trend toward increased tree damage.

The restriction means hunters in the county are not permitted to shoot a buck unless it has three points on one side of its antlers. It is designed to allow bucks to grow to trophy status as they roam the woods, swamps and fruit orchards — a plus for hunters, but not farmers.

— The Associated Press

Immigration talks hit impasse ... They met behind closed doors over the past four months in the Capitol Hill office of California’s senior senator, carving out details of what could be a landmark change for agriculture-based immigration.

Now, however, California growers and farmworkers have hit an impasse, and they are running out of time to agree on a program that could affect hundreds of thousands of farmworkers nationwide.

“Our window is closing quickly,” said Tom Nassif, president of the Western Growers Association, which pulled out of talks with the United Farm Workers after both sides refused to budge on minimum wages and other regulations for a new temporary visa program.

The stalled talks threaten to leave agriculture out of the comprehensive immigration bill expected next week from a bipartisan Senate group.

But U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said in an emailed statement this month, “we are close to a resolution.”

The months-long talks had reached broad consensus on reforms that would legalize hundreds of thousands of agricultural workers living here illegally.

A new “blue card” would give them a chance to become legal residents and eventually citizens.

It would offer a faster process than the 13-year one proposed for other illegal immigrants.

But field workers’ newfound mobility and freedom to work wherever they want would likely draw some to the cities for better jobs, compelling agricultural companies to look elsewhere for workers.

— Contra Costa Times

Groundwater replacement plan released ... A groundwater subdistrict designed to reduce aquifer pumping and protect surface water users released its draft annual replacement plan this month.

The plan for Subdistrict No. 1, which takes in just under 3,400 irrigation wells in the north-central San Luis Valley, is subject to public comment and must still be approved by the state engineer.

The draft plan projects the subdistrict will send 5,102 acre-feet of water into the Rio Grande to mitigate the impacts to surface water users from groundwater pumping.

Groundwater pumping by subdistrict wells is estimated to come in at 270,000 acre-feet this year.

The plan lists 10 sources for the replacement water that amount to 11,165 acre-feet in available water.

One of those sources is a U.S. Bureau of Reclamation project that pumps groundwater from the eastern side of the valley and delivers most of it to the Rio Grande to assist with interstate compact requirements.

— The Pueblo Chieftain

District flipped for farms ... An El Paso County water district could be used to fund a plan to build reservoirs on the Arkansas River in Pueblo County.

Two Rivers Water and Farming Co. has acquired all of the land inside the Sunset Metropolitan District near Colorado Springs and plans to use the district’s bonding capacity to build reservoirs on the Arkansas River near Avondale.

Two Rivers plans to amend the Sunset district’s service plan to focus on rotational farm fallowing in the Arkansas River Basin, CEO John McKowen said in a press release.

The plan includes changing the district’s name to Farm-City Metropolitan District and using the district’s bonding capacity to finance water infrastructure projects that support rotational farm fallowing, he said.

The district has a bonding capacity of $130 million, with no bonds currently outstanding.

It was originally formed to provide water to a housing development.

Collaborative rotational farm fallowing agreements between farmers and municipalities make surplus urban water available for irrigation and conversely make irrigation water available for urban use during droughts without permanently drying up farmland.